Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Top Secret! National Security! You DO NOT need to know what you are pissing away!

Do I have a right to know what’s in my urine? How can what I urinate be a matter of National Security? It can’t be!

From fish to meat to baby shampoo to the pipes our water flows through, we are a world increasingly filled with unwanted, unintended chemicals in our bodies and now we are being told we can’t handle the truth.

The truth is, we already know we are being pumped full of pharmaceuticals and chemicals we never signed up for…now the small number of government officials and the other 1% of the public is being made aware.

We already know that 2 of the most powerful antibiotics, ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, both banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been getting into the food we eat.

These drugs have been proven to play a major role in the transmission of resistant microorganisms from animals to humans through the food chain.

We also know that Phthalates, a chemical used in many types of plastics, has been linked to testicular cancer and defects of the male reproduction system. Most of the water we drink passes through pipes made of PVC at some point.

In fact 90% of the phthalates produced in the UK go into the production of PVC products. The UK banned the use of products that use Phthalates that come into contact with food stuffs.

A condition known as Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) is the name for the umbrella that covers a long list of male reproductive organ ailments. Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle), Hypospadias (a birth defect of the penis) and impaired sperm production known as spermatogenesis are all being linked to exposure to Phthalates.

Phthalates absorbed by pregnant women is also thought to be leading to the ‘feminization’ of the developing male fetus. The Chemical Bisphenol A, (BPA) is beginning to be linked to ‘gender confusion‘. Virtually everyone tested shows one or more types of Phthalates in their urine.

One of the most in-depth explanations of what and where these chemicals can be found in is in an article ‘down the drain’ that can be found here

Lab rats, babies, fish, mammals of all kinds and now birds have been found to be suffering from the effects of these hormone disrupting chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Warmer water temperatures will be bringing a bevy of new problems for humans as well as the creatures that make their homes in and near the water.

The CDC, Center for Disease control is reporting a spike in cases of death from Naegleria fowleri. 6 deaths have been reported this year from the brain-eating amoeba. 6 cases don’t sound like a lot until we see there were only 23 cases reported during 10 entire years from 1994 to 2004.

The CDC says there have been only several hundred cases reported worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 60’s. Still, an amoeba that enters through the nose and eats the brain sounds like the stuff science fiction horror is made from.

For the family of the latest reported victim, 14 years old, this isn’t fiction, but a very real horror. Now the residents of Tucson Arizona have been alerted to the fact that their water supply has tested positive for the presence of the deadly Naegleria fowleri.

It sounds like a bad good news, bad news joke. The bad news is this Amoeba feeds on your brain until it kills you. The good news is, it come into your body through your nose. Scientists recommend not snorting the water. Yep….

Scientists also believe as the earth’s surface heats up there will be more and more deaths from Naegleria fowleri as well as other disease and illness.

The amoeba feed on bacteria that grows in warm waters. It lives in soil and warm bodies of water like hot springs, rivers and lakes. Pools if not properly maintained can grow the microbes too.

Pay attention here. The microbe lives in surface water, but now it’s been found in the city of Tucson’s water supply. There is speculation the microbe that’s now been found in its new home, in the underground water source, may be a result of the use of biodegradable oils used in the city’s water pumps.

Is this another case of the cure being worse than the disease?

The growth of Naegleria fowleri in underground water sources may be the unintended consequences of using environmentally friendly lubricants. Go figure.

Tucson residents have been assured that their water is sufficiently chlorinated, and this brain-eating amoeba is dead before it flows from their faucets. I rarely get water up my nose when I’m drinking it, but it frequently goes in my nose when I shower. I’m not certain I would be reassured.

If this microbe has been previously only found on surface water, will a day come when this microbe was previously killed by chlorine added to the water?

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Something strange has been sucked out of its ocean habitat from 3,000 feet under the sea.

Is it a squidopus? Is it an octosquid?

What ever ‘it’ is ‘it’ was found caught in a filter in one of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority’s deep-sea water pipes. These pipes are pumping ice-cold seawater up from 3,000 feet down for desalinated bottled seawater.

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) is currently hosting 3 desalinazation bottled water companies, with 4 more companies slated to tap into the NELHA pipeline soon. The Koyo USA Corp., is now the largest.

The claim to fame this water has is that it’s thousands of years old and free of modern impuritites. The desalinated water is marketed as a stress reducer, a weight loss aid, skin tone enhancer and digestive aid. Wow!

Deep sea desalinated bottled water is a multi-million dollar market recently developed. Until this year the market for ‘unsweetened’ water was tasting pretty sweet, but sales of the desalinated water have fallen 5% in the first three months of this year. While the same three months of 2006 showed a mind blowing 700% increase.

The decline may not indicate a lack of takers on the seawater market, but several other countries are breaking into this latest trend in bottled drinking water.

The octosquid or squidopus was found along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and it stayed alive for three days. The little guy is now being examined at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.

Two years ago NELHA filters trapped a fish that had never before been seen. NELHA cleans their filters every two to three months, but a more frequent cleaning may be in order these days.

This little creature had the ability to light up or glow while trying to frighten off predators. Sadly that tactic didn’t work on the NELHA pipes. DNA testing will be done at The Ohio State University.

Great! Mankind has discovered one more way to violate one more untouched portion of the planet. Now a whole new species can look forward to being sucked out of it’s ocean habitat in a new form of ‘bycatch’!

If these undersea creatures figure out how to avoid stationary pipes sucking in water, they will have to develop another skill-set; Avoiding moving pipes.

DSH International Inc., operating as Deep Ocean Hawaii began harvesting deep-sea drinking water from a ship positioned 3.4 miles west of Ko Olina.

This may be one more ‘good idea’ that will ultimately have devastating consequences to the environment. Decades from now we may discover we unintentionally wiped out the last hope to cure cancer…It was washed out of pipe filters as bycatch.